Questions about a new Ruby 2 cartridge

Zaikesman,
thanks! I have weaned myself off 47k myself over the last months and am reaping enormous benefits. your advise was excellent. especially helpful to me was your paragraph beginning "what you are looking for...".
the extreme highs at 47k were indeed "unrealistically exagerated", which at first was very seductive (in the "openness" that I heard in it). but now when I move too high in my setting I perceive an almost microphonic like echo effect that is extremely unnatural sounding.
it reminded me of what a friend of mine who is a sucessful producer of contempory commercial hip hop/r&b said to me when I explained to him that analog and tubes sound more natural to me, more real to my ear than digital. he said, "sure, I know what you mean. but when I'm in the studio we are actually TRYING to get an unrealistic, even supernatural sound. because it's attractive to the kids - it sells."
47k ohms sells too. I guess because it is so much better then the compression at the other extreme.

I did try it again with different settings and it was always the same: down from 47 k, it will be becoming slower and slower, more dull and lifeless.

But there is another point:

When the gain is set too high for your cartridge, you over-drive the amp stages and clipping and distortion is possible.

I did all with my Miyabi, 0,25mV

( this is low output, but not really low )

When I went too high with gain ( 67 dB and more ) in combination with 47k, then I hear clipping with piano recordings.

Going down to normal 63 dB area,then everything is great with 47k.

I think, most users set their phono stage to the max gain and then they do their ' experiments '.

Wrong way.
I had a Ruby, too, it is designed originally from Benz ( not Lukascheck ) for 47K.
The new Ruby II, which has a higher output, i think, something in the 0.4 mV area ??, when this one is amplified with too much gain ( 64 dB and much more- 68,70,75dB) and a 47K setting, this will be inferior. So I agree, when someone with such a setting is going down to 1k, that the prefers that.

The superiority of a 47K load ( in a phono stage which can handle it without sounding dead ) is only in combination with the right gain for the cartridge.

For those, who own a adjustable phono stage ( gain, impedance ...) and a uncoloured system it is easy to find out.

easy - and fun and time consuming!

Tagyerit: Glad to hear my polemics may have had some practical benefit. I agree with your analogy between what some feel is an attractively exagerated sound in a phono cart and what is done to many pop recordings in terms of studio production - once the ear is educated, the unaturalness of things like a hyped top octave and inflated images becomes repulsive (but then again, so is most of the music recorded that way, my apologies to your friend!). So what loading did you wind up deciding to run your Ruby at?

still on the path actually.
a few months back I felt that 825 ohms was the best I would find. I've had it there most of the time since then, but I was bothered at times by the highs seeming a bit too strident, like a HINT of too much edge. I attributed it to the nature of the Ruby 2H in my system as compared to the previous carts I'd been used to - which were all Grados(mellow mellow mellow). so I thought "give it time" as it may just be unrolled off highs being new to my ears. then it became clear to me that it also still sounded less SOLID then it should. (((just for fun before trying other loads I reached over to my old "audionics of Oregon" David Berning designed ba150 amp and switched it's FEEDBACK on. that did cut the airyness, implying more solidity, but paying for it with unwanted compression. back to zero feedback...))) and sure enough, dropping the load to 475 ohms brought it into focus; with smooth and clear upper mids, a touch of liquidity, sweet tight bass, killer soundstage & imaging, (wonderfully transparent but not unnaturally so) and the highs less biting but still quite present. now I am playing between 475 and 452.06: Abbey Road sounds best at 475 while Beethoven (the 9th - Von Karajan 63), Bach and Albert King just LOVE it at 452. Bill Evans and Louis Armsrong sound great everywhere. so I want an external switch, which I ain't got, so I guess I'm gonna have to compromise somewhere sometime. thank God and Harry W. that I at least have VTA on the fly!
so I'm deciding between 2 perches in heaven - things could be worse...Such sweet torture.